This disclosure relates generally to identifying content items for presentation to users of an online system, and more particularly to performing a two-stage selection process for presenting content items in videos that incorporates a brand value associated with a source of the videos.
Online systems, such as social networking systems, allow users to connect to and to communicate with other users of the online system. Users may create profiles on an online system that are tied to their identities and include information about the users, such as interests and demographic information. The users may be individuals or entities such as corporations or charities. Online systems allow users to easily communicate and to share content with other online system users by providing content to an online system for presentation to other users. Content provided to an online system by a user may be declarative information provided by a user, status updates, check-ins to locations, images, photographs, videos, text data, or any other information a user wishes to share with additional users of the online system. An online system may also generate content for presentation to a user, such as content describing actions taken by other users on the online system.
Additionally, many online systems commonly allow users (e.g., businesses) to sponsor presentation of content on an online system to gain public attention for a user's products or services or to persuade other users to take an action regarding the publishing user's products or services. Content for which the online system receives compensation in exchange for presenting to users is referred to as “sponsored content.” Many online systems receive compensation from a user for presenting online system users with certain types of sponsored content provided by this type of user. Frequently, online systems charge a user for each presentation of sponsored content to an online system user or for each interaction with sponsored content by an online system user. For example, an online system receives compensation from a user each time a content item provided by the publishing user is displayed to another user on the online system or each time another user is presented with a content item on the online system and interacts with the content item (e.g., selects a link included in the content item), or each time another user performs another action after being presented with the content item.
Content items may be associated with targeting criteria that identify characteristics of online system users eligible to be presented with the content item. For example, a content item is eligible to be presented to an online system user having characteristics satisfying at least a threshold amount of targeting criteria associated with the content item; however, the content item is not eligible to be presented to another online system user having characteristics satisfying less than the threshold amount of targeting criteria associated with the content item. Targeting criteria associated with a content item are often specified by a user providing the content item to an online system, and allow an online system to identify users who are most likely to be interested in being presented with a particular content item as eligible be presented with the content item.